Asked if she was critical of her bodyguard, Swift replied: “I’m critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabb

Fans and critics have praised her performance on the stand.

“Taylor Swift did not sugarcoat her testimony,” said Variety Magazine’s Jem Aswad, singling out the moment Mueller’s lawyer, Gabriel McFarland, asked why the front of her skirt did not appear to be ruffled in the photograph.

“Because,” Swift replied, “my ass is located in the back of my body.”

Billboard’s Gil Kaufmann applauded the star for refusing to let Mr McFarland sway her interpretation of the incident.

“It happened to me. I have a 3-D rendition of what happened in my brain,” he quoted her as saying. “I could have picked him out of a line of 1,000. I know exactly who did this. It is not alleged. It is a fact.

“You can ask me a million questions about it and I’m never going to say anything different.”

“For young fans of Swift’s, hearing a beloved artist speak candidly about the emotional damage of sexual assault and stand up to a courtroom of men trying to prove her wrong could be a formative moment for their developing ideas of gender, sex, and accountability.”